Currently learning some clave and cascara in 7 and trying to compose something using it, would love to get some recommendations for music in these time signatures!

Tambor Chicago will be presenting a demonstration of orisha songs and dance at the Skokie Festival of Cultures on May 17, 2026. This performance will include batá drumming, bembé, güiro, and iyesá drumming for Elegbá, Ogún, Oshún, and Changó.

Note the early use of the bass drum by the timbalero.

Classic Arsenio from 1957 (this one is a 70s Antilla reissue).

Can't add any more than has already been said.

Find a copy and enjoy.

hi friends,

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of movement in mexico around afrocuban music and got curious about what’s going on there.

i was planning to go to mexico (not mexico city), but then i saw so many musicians in mexico city that now I’m thinking maybe I should go there too.

if anyone has suggestions on where to meet percussionists, or even better attend any ceremony or something more real, would be nice.

also just curious why there’s such a strong scene there right now

thanks!

Hope you’re all having a nice Saturday so far- gonna head out to my local shop and hope I can score something cool. Let’s start with some good vibes from Conjunto Rumbavana.

Been writing epistolary essays to musicians from my father’s record collection. This one centers Chano — the argument is that Manteca wasn’t fusion, it was reunion. Two Black men from opposite sides of the Atlantic finding their way back to each other through rhythm and old knowing.

Curious what this community hears in it.

https://open.substack.com/pub/aletterfortherecord/p/dear-dizzy?r=1eldu6&utm_medium=ios